Twelve Moons
Korean National University for the Arts
a reimagining of Korean tadtional mask dance
devised directed
Thomas Riccio considers himself a performance writer rather than a playwright, and he is direct and firm in his beliefs. His strong precise opinion and criticism struck a nerve and his words must be accepted modestly.
His prerequisite is “People must speak on their own terms and this means using their own forms, because these forms come from a specific way of living on their part of the earth."
In this way of doing theatre he thinks a community can effectively deal and solve its social problems. He sees performance as a practical technology. "s it some sort of self-inflicted neo-colonialism for a people to deal with their issues by adopting a foreign theatre language and form? Korea has its own tools, use them?"
Thomas developed and directed "Twelve Moons" and his performance applied traditional mask and dance expression to create new masks characters. A popular and artistic success, the performance re-imagined the ancient origin myth of Tangun, placing it in a contemporary context.
Che Min Ilbo, Korea
